National Library of France "> An illustration from the manuscript Danse Macabre des Femmes (circa 1500) showing a skeletal personification of death leading a woman to her grave. Credit: National Library of France

Stories of wandering spirits and the restless dead were common in the Middle Ages. These ghostly encounters were recorded in a wide variety of medieval literature.

Medieval ghost stories combined folklore traditions with religious doctrine. The widespread belief in purgatory —a place where souls were cleansed of sin before entering heaven—helped fuel the belief in ghosts.

Spirits of the departed were thought able to return, exhorting the living to pray for them and make amends on their behalf to aid their passage through purgatory.…